Saturated or pre-moistened paper and textile wipers have been used in a variety of wiping and polishing cloths. These substrates are often provided in a sealed container and retrieved therefrom in a moist or saturated condition (i.e. pre-moistened). The pre-moistened cloth or paper wiper releases the retained liquid when used to clean or polish the desired surface. In addition, meltblown fiber fabrics have also been used as pre-moistened wipers in various applications and end uses. It is known that meltblown fiber fabrics are capable of receiving and retaining liquids for extended periods of time. More particularly, meltblown fiber fabrics are capable of being supplied in a stacked or rolled form wherein, when saturated with a liquid, the meltblown fiber fabrics maintain the liquid uniformly distributed throughout the stack. Thus, meltblown fiber sheets can be stacked in a sealable container and liquid added thereto. The sealed container can then be stored or shipped as needed and the stacked meltblown fabric retains the liquid evenly throughout the stack during the shelf life of the product. Uniformly moist meltblown fiber fabrics provided in a stacked form are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,853,281 and 4,833,033 both to Win et al. Pre-moistened meltblown fiber fabrics have found a wide variety of applications including use as polishing clothes, hand wipes, hard surface cleaners and so forth. By way of example, various application s of pre-saturated meltblown fabrics are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,361 to Vogt et a U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,786 to McBride et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,971 to Rose et al.
While meltblown fabrics provide desirable liquid absorption and retention characteristics, meltblown fabrics also provide a metered release of the liquid retained therein. Thus, in use it is often difficult to achieve a quick and substantial release of the liquid from the meltblown. In addition, in certain cleaning operations, meltblown fabrics can experience linting, i.e. the shedding of fibers from the fabric. This is particularly problematic in "clean room" operations or paint preparation procedures where production of even small particles such as lint is highly undesirable. In addition to linting, tearing or disassociation of the meltblown fabric can also be problematic when used for "heavy-duty" applications such as, for example, when cleaning rough and irregular surfaces. Multilayer laminates comprising spunbond fiber nonwoven webs and meltblown fiber fabrics have been previously utilized in order to provide a wiper that exhibits less linting and improved durability. However, although meltblown fabrics exhibit good liquid absorption and retention characteristics, these characteristics have not heretofore been readily achievable with spunbond fiber nonwoven webs. Thus, the meltblown fiber webs provide such laminates with good liquid retention characteristics and the outer spunbond fabric provide reduced linting. As an example U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,780 to Hotchkiss et al. describes a spunbond/meltblown/spunbond laminate having a relatively high basis weight meltblown layer between two spunbond fiber layers.
Thus, there exists a continued need for a uniformly moist wiper and uniformly moist stacked pre-moistened products thereof, which exhibit improved tear strength and durability. Furthermore, there exists a need for such a wiper and articles thereof which exhibit reduced linting. Still further, there exists a need for such a %Wiper that exhibits a high initial and substantial release of liquid contained therein.